God granteth not to man a richer boon Than tow'rd himself to draw the waiting soul, Making it swift to pray this high control. Would with according grace its jars attune. And man on man the largest gift bestows When from the vision-mount he sings aloud, And pours upon the unascended crowd Pure Order's heavenly stream that o'er him flows. So thou, my friend, hast risen through thought supreme To central insight of eternal law. Thy golden-cadenced intuitions gleam From that new heaven which John of Patmos saw; And I my spirit lowly bend to thine, In recognition of thy words divine. From Salem she writes to Elizabeth, her summer jaunt being over:-- "I have not touched a pencil since I came home. I cannot be grateful enough that I can be hands and feet to the dearest mother in the world, who has all my life been all things to me, so delicate as I have been. There is pastime, pleasure, and a touch of the infinitely beautiful to me in what is generally considered drudgery; and I find there is nothing so inconsiderable in life that the moving of the spirit of love over it does not commute it into essential beauty." CHAPTER III THE EARLY DAYS OF THE MARRIAGE Just before her marriage, on July 9, 1842, and her residence in the Old Manse, Sophia wrote to Mrs. Caleb Foote, of Salem:-- July 5. MY DEAR MARY,--You mistake much when you say you will not hear from me after I have gone to my own home. I shall tell those who are dear to me that I love them still. I feel to-day like a rising Phoenix. Mr. Hawthorne has been here, looking like the angel of the Apocalypse, so powerful and gentle. It seems as if I were realizing the dreams of the poets in my own person. Just think of the felicity of showing him my inscriptions with pencil and sculpturing-tool--and he so just and severe a critic! He is far the best critic I ever had. The agent of Heaven in this Concord plan was Elizabeth Hoar; a fit minister on such an errand, for minister means angel of God. Her interest has been very great in every detail. . . . Yours affectionately, SOPHIA. The following note is descriptive of the real happiness in the marriage, which was felt and often uttered by friends:--